Peter Buckley the Ultimate Road Warrior

HOLLYWOOD planned a movie on the extraordinary, 300 fight career of Peter Buckley.

It would've been a script that out-Rockyed Rocky: a gritty tale of an underdog's constant valiant battles with the game's Goliaths.

"When the director rang me up I thought it was bull****," said the 51-year-old in a treacle thick Brummie accent so gravelly it sounds as if he's spent a lifetime gargling shale. The rapid-fire sentences are stitched together by profanities.

Those sentences are not slurred. Three hundreds fights have not frayed Buckley's faculties - testament to his defensive skills.

"They sent over the script and it was a bit Americanified, it wasn't really me. It went on for a few years and, in the end, I lost contact with them.

"In America they don't know what a journeyman is, the fighters over there don't know how to survive."

They know who Peter Buckley is, partly thanks to the Washington Post which covered his final bout, and they are fascinated by him.

The fighting life of Buckley is the stuff films are made of. He was the game's ultimate survivor.

It's not simply the huge number of contests amassed in a career that began in 1989 and ended with a Villa Park victory in 2008. It's the calibre of opposition faced, more often than not at short notice.

And Buckley continued to battle the best up until the end - his 299th contest was against Lee Selby. "Fast as ****," is Peter's curt assessment of the future world featherweight champ.

Acocks Green's former Midlands super-bantam and junior-lightweight champ twice faced Naseem Hamed, taking him the distance first time round and left outraged by the stoppage in the second. He tussled with three weight world champ Duke McKenzie, WBO junior-lightweight king Barry Jones, world featherweight titleholder Paul Ingle, IBF super-bantam boss Fabrice Benichou, IBF super-bantam champ Lehlo Ledwaba, world featherweight champ Michael Brodie, WBO featherweight titleholder Scott Harrison and welterweight champ Kell Brook.

Buckley even shared the ring with Brazilian Acelino Freitas, the WBO junior-lightweight champ considered, in his prime, the biggest puncher on the planet.

Then there's the British and European champs who litter Buckley's 32-256-12 remarkable record.

Buckley, one of larger-than-life character Nobby Nobbs' stable of journeymen unkindly dubbed in some quarters Losers Inc., had the ability to fight for a British title.

Instead, he slipped into the role of top quality "away fighter". Now in the removal business and a grandfather, he has no regrets.

Buckley candidly admits there are plenty of men he could've beaten, but didn't: he knew his role was to give them a "move around", not wreck their padded records.

"I know 100 per cent I could've fought for the British title," he said.

Instead, Buckley trod a less glamorous path. It gave him a steady income and a boxing longevity not enjoyed by champs.

"Sometimes I'd be on the p*** the night before," he admitted. "Sometimes I'd go there and go through the motions, treat it like a sparring session.

"Once, in Ireland, I was told, 'there's this lad we want you to fight, he's not much'. I hurt him with a left hook in the second or third round and he was all over the place. I went through the motions after that.

"People would say, 'just have a move around with this boxer'. They were building these lads up to fail. Also, referees didn't like Nobby because he'd take the p*** out of them. He was tongue-in-cheek.

"If I'd fought for the British title, I wouldn't have the career I've had. I don't regret nothing. I've been to lots of places and everyone knows who I am."

In any case, Buckley's service to the game has earned him a raft of awards.

"When I turned pro, I thought I'd have a few fights and I did OK," said Buckley. "Then they matched me with Duke McKenzie. It was short notice, but I took that fight because I believed I could win it.

"It was a rude awakening, I found out there are levels in boxing. There are area title kids, British title kids and world title kids. When he hit me with a jab, it was the best jab I've ever been hit with - or the worst, from my point of view. He was so technically gifted. I always rated him the best boxer I faced."

McKenzie prevailed in five rounds - one of only 10 occasions when Buckley failed to hear the final bell.

Before teaming-up with Nobby, Buckley made waves as a gifted schoolboy boxer for Hall Green's Talbot ABC and Ladywood, winning 50 of 54.

The quality was there from an early age. He reached the semi-finals of the national schoolboy championship, quarter-finals of the junior ABAs and was beaten in an NABC final by Mark Tibbs.

At 15, he walked away from the sport and wasn't seen in the ring again until he turned pro.

"I had ambition," Buckley stressed. "I was always fit, I've always been athletic, I was a decent rugby player. After the McKenzie fight I was going to pack it in and then decided to carry on.

"I learned a lot from the other lads in the gym and Nobby was a very good defensive trainer. I learned to move my head - I never had one cut eye in all my fights. Nineteen years and I passed all my brain scans.

"Nobby never forced you to have a fight. He'd ask all his fighters, do you want this fight?

"Every show we went to, I'd sit and watch every fight."

Buckley was studying the form, making mental notes of future opponents' strengths and weaknesses. "I had butterflies, but not real nerves because I knew what I was up against," he explained. The homework paid dividends.

"When I was offered (future British lightweight title challenger) Steve Murray (7-0 at the time, six of them by stoppage) over eight rounds, I jumped at it. I knew it would be easy for me and the fight was a piece of p***.

"He beat me, don't get me wrong, but there was not a mark on me.

"Once I'd gone the distance with Naseem, everyone wanted to stop me just to go one better than him. (Former European super-bantam champ) Spencer Oliver dropped me, but I got up and we had a great fight. He said afterwards, 'you shouldn't be a journeyman, you're too good'.

"(Austria's future world super-bantam challenger) Harald Geier was unbeaten in 14, but I knew someone who boxed him in Vienna. He told me, 'take the fight, he can't punch'. I trained like **** for that one and put him over with a left hook to the body, left hook to the head. The referee picked him up, wiped his gloves, then wiped my gloves. The last three rounds, I annihilated him and they still gave it to him."

"I boxed Drew Docherty (Scotland's British bantamweight champ) in Glasgow and he beat me by half-a-point. When (WBC international bantam champ) Donnie Hood beat me in Glasgow, the Scottish crowd booed the decision."

Any interview with Buckley must eventually incorporate Naseem Hamed, the brash, braggart who carried a sleeping draught in each fist.

Even the future featherweight king found Buckley, in 1992 and '94 clashes, near blast proof.

"I knew Naz before he turned pro," said Buckley. "He was a cheeky little ******. I was never intimidated by him, when the fight was offered, I jumped at it.

"Against me, he never flipped over the top rope and I won a couple of rounds. He didn't hurt me once, he didn't hurt me like McKenzie and Freitas hurt me.

"The second fight, the stoppage was bull****. When the ref stops it, you can see me going mad. Afterwards, Naz told me, 'I would've beaten you anyway'. I told him to **** off. To be fair, he's always shown respect for me."

So has Kell Brook, who Buckley fought at a day's notice.

Fittingly, Buckley had his last fight at the home of his beloved Aston Villa - and signed off with a win over novice Matin Mohammed: the pair had drawn 26 days earlier.

"When I had 294 fights I decided I was packing it in," said Buckley. "I knew it was coming to an end. I felt the engine was running low - you can't drive the same car for 19 years without changing the engine.

"I was as nervous as I'd ever been for that last fight. I wanted to go out on a win.

"Three weeks after it, I was offered a fight in Dubai for good money, but said no. I knew it was time to pack in, I'd slowed. I knew it was the end.

"Boxing has been my life. I had my trainer's licence and I was training fighters for Errol Johnson (head of Black Country Boxing promotional group), but I was looking after my mum, who passed away three years ago. I was doing a lot of things for my mum and just didn't have the time. I love boxing. I don't go to the shows, but I always watch it on TV.

"And I think Midlands boxing is in a good place, there are some good lads coming through. Errol Johnson and Jon Pegg (of Birmingham's Eastside gym) - they are Midlands boxing, really - are doing a great job."

He added: "I felt more than a journeyman. Someone once told me, 'you may be a jouneyman, but you're the best there is'. That'll do me."